Argyle Under-18s are hoping to start their 2026 in positive fashion on Saturday morning when facing Bristol Rovers at Millennium Fields.
The Greens were hoping to get their year under way last weekend, but weather conditions curtailed this, forcing the away match against Swindon Town to be postponed until a later date.
Argyle currently sit in 11th place in the EFL Youth Alliance League South, having won six of 14 games, while Rovers hold 17th place, having won four of 12.
Head Coach Jamie Lowry is delighted with his players’ approach to the return after the Christmas break, but also has ensured his side will not come into the game looking at league positions against a well-coached Rovers.
“The boys are champing at the bit, as you can imagine, for this game,” Lowry told Argyle TV. “We played an in-house game last weekend, with the Swindon game being off, but that can only give you so much in terms of realism compared to a game. The boys have had a really good week - probably the best week I've seen them have this year, to be honest.
“They've been outstanding in and around the building, and in the gym. Training has been next level, so I can tell that they're ready to get back into game mode. We keep reminding them and driving them to be consistent with training.
“Training the basics and how you improve by doing it properly every day helps you grow, and the group is growing and learning, when looking at the first half of the season to where we are now. Hopefully, it is all coming together, and the boys are just starting to really find their feet and be in a good place.
“[Bristol Rovers] are a difficult team to play against. They’re very well coached and have a good style of play about them. They try to pass the ball and try to do things properly. However, it is about us and how we try to stamp our DNA on the game. It is also important that we try to pass the ball when we can, get it to our wide players, be nice and positive, make forward runs, and definitely be creative in and around the box.
“We are going into our next phase of the games programme. We're just playing other regional teams, so it is really the time to kick on. The boys are really motivated to top our league. We didn’t have a great start to the season, so now we need to be consistent in all games and build a run of form as we did earlier in the year.”
